红酒·绿茶 / Red Wine & Green Tea / Vin Rouge et Thé Vert

老婆刚验出孕，我就开始琢磨孩子的名字了。 首先，我觉得名字应该中性一点。女名“淑”“惠”“芳”，男名“刚”“强”“毅”，不仅缺乏新意，还特容易重。我自己就是受害者。中性一点的名字，男女通用，也省我事儿。当过或者要当父母的人都知道，取个好名字有多么地费脑细胞。 其次，我觉得名字不要用生僻字。别人如果老是念错你的名字，你不开心；人家知道了，也不开心。既然不用生僻字，又不想重名，单字名就不要想了。所以要两个字。 再次，我认为好名字应该用典。典故就是文人之间的猜谜游戏，猜到了以后有一种快感，同时也把一个孤零零的名字增添了上下文，涵义丰富了起来。所以“三立”、“友谅”、“静姝”都是好名字。 然后，我希望孩子的外文名跟中文名有所对应。我的计划是先取中文名，然后找一个音近又不难听的外文名即可。因为加拿大是双语国家，我希望这个名字英文法文都好念。 最后，虽然我们还没有决定要不要更多的孩子，我希望这个名字可以很容易衍生出新名字，让人一看就知道两个孩子是兄弟姐妹。（这一点，我又是个受害者。我姐的名字是我爸的姓加我妈的名，“爱的结晶”啊。后来我出生了，没得取了，只好随便另取一个。） A tall order, indeed. 我先挑书。经典之中，对我影响最大的是《论语》。记得刚考上清华，第一次接触大学图书馆的时候，我欣喜若狂。中学以来，我一直对思想政治课上宣传的共产主义有一种陌生感，觉得始终不是中国的东西，不能用来安身立命。现在回想，我当时的思维状况是典型的identity crisis。于是我想寻根，看四书五经。但是我看的顺序跟传统的私塾不同，否则应该从《大学》《中庸》开始。《论语》是孔子弟子记载的言行录，很多地方读来像讲故事，所以立刻吸引了我。当时我的文言水平还不足以直接读，于是请教了英明神武的waikok，用杨伯峻的《论语译注》入门。以后又读了各种注释版本，出国的时候带了一本朱熹的《四书章句集注》在身边随时翻阅。博士毕业的时候，我在论文扉页上加上了这一段： 子曰、質勝文則野、文勝質則史、文質彬彬、然後君子。  The Master said, “Where the solid qualities are in excess of accomplishments, we have rusticity; where the acco...

我出生在四川南溪，一个位于宜宾边上的小县城。但是我并不会说南溪话，因为父母都在一个从重庆调来的军工厂工作。那个年代的军工厂俨然就是一个独立的小社区，从医院到学校都是厂里自己的。厂里的人在（南溪）本地人面前有一种优越感，觉得自己是（重庆）城里人，只是为了支援三线建设，才到此苦寒之地。所以南溪话是不屑于说的，一口标准的重庆话就是高人一等的标志。虽然我父母说的都不是标准的重庆话，一傅众咻，我却操一口地道的重庆腔。因此，严格来说，我的母语是重庆话，也就是西南官话的重庆方言。 直到我七岁那年，全家搬到了绵阳。 绵阳的小朋友迅速注意到了我的重庆口音，毫不犹豫地开始取笑我。给我印象极深的就是“很多”这个常用形容词，重庆话说“he1 duo1”。我从小就是个很敏感的人，所以暗下决心，一定要学会绵阳话。几个星期之后，已经没有人能听得出我以前是说重庆话的了。 Story of my life. 考上清华以后，我的普通话立刻被北方同学嘲笑了。他们说我说普通话的时候不像在聊天，像在演讲。这是因为那个时候四川的学校里，老师还是用方言授课，只有在语文课念课文的时候，才会说普通话。我是个很敏感的人，所以暗下决心，一定要学会北京话。（我有意地模仿离我最近的北京人，也就是著名的waikok。以至于多年以后有个人跟我说，“你说话怎么跟waikok一个味儿呀”，我会心地笑了。）几个月之后，已经没有人能听得出我是四川人了。（最让我得意的是，在美国跟中国同学玩的时候，不止一次有北京人想认我当老乡。） 来到美国以后，才知道自己的英文口语有多烂。但是美国的同学很有礼貌，并没有因此嘲笑过我，只是不断地需要说"pardon"/"sorry"/"say it again"来确认。然而我是个很敏感的人，所以暗下决心，一定要学会美国英语。（我拼命看美国电视练听力，以至于什么垃圾节目我都看过。知道"Jerry Springer Show"是干嘛的吗？我还上了一门ESL的口语课，在一位慈祥的美国老太的帮助下，彻底纠正了非英非美的发音。）几年以后，虽然人家还是能听出我不是native speaker，但是说"pardon"的次数明显减少，而且有不止一位美国人真心地称赞过我的英文口语。 博士毕业之后找工作，...

00 Prelude Chapter I Cities 01  - Pompeii 02  - Ercolano 03   Napoli 04   Praha 05  -  Kutná Hora 06   Wien 07   Budapest 08  - Lucca 09  - Cinque Terre 10   Pisa 11  - Siena Chapter II Museums 12  Palazzo Reale (Napoli) 13  Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Napoli) 14  Pražský hrad (Praha) 15  Lobkowicz Palace (Praha) 16  Schonbrunn Palace (Wien) 17  Imperial Apartments (Wien) 18  Sisi Museum (Wien) 19  Kunsthistorisches Museum (Wien) 20  Piazza dei Miracoli (Pisa) 21  Museo Civico (Siena) 22  Opera della Metropolitana (Siena) 23  Cappelle medicee (Firenze) Chapter III Stories 24  Dear Neapolitan Thieves 25  Laotian 26  She's Canadian!  

As a long-time Tintin fan, I was so excited to learn that Montreal would be the first to screen The Adventures of Tintin (2011)  in North America. So I wasted no time, "not a moment to lose" as Tintin would say, in buying the tickets online at my favorite downtown movie theatre,   Cinéma Banque Scotia Montréal . I was a little bit concerned because the title of the movie was presented in French, "Les aventures de Tintin", but after 3 years living in the very bilingual city that is Montreal, I have got used to people switching between or mixing English and French all the time. "It's downtown, the heart of anglophone culture", I said to myself, "even if they were so obliged to show Tintin in its absolutely original tongue, French, they would at least  show it with English subtitles to be politically correct." I was dead wrong. In hindsight, I was in denial that I made a mistake. Even when we walked into the room with a "VF" sign,...

Having had great pleasure in reading "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli , I can't help but writing down some thoughts I had in mind. With all due respect, Machiavelli's advice to a new prince may seem novel to the Greco-Roman world but are almost trite to the Sino-centric world. For example, Cesare Borgia's plan of letting Remirro de Orco, an extremely cruel person (酷吏), do all the dirty job of purging the unruly lords in the newly acquired Romagna then cutting him in half to please the people, which Machiavelli praised as an excellent example of political maneuver, was in any Chinese princes' playbook since probably the beginning of written Chinese history. What was new to me was Machiavelli's proto-scientific treatment of politics, which draws conclusions on logical analysis of the actual results of each political decision. For example, "it is better to be feared than loved." Modern political science's reliance on polls and data is sim...

I know I haven't blogged for a really long time but I can't help but paying tribute to Steve Jobs (1955-2011). Ever since I got my first Apple product, a Powerbook G4, I have never looked back. Life is too short to be wasted on figuring out how to use a computer, or using a computer that fails randomly. It should make you life easier, not harder. It should just work, like a Mac. His 2005 Stanford commencement speech is the best I have ever heard. You should watch it if you haven't already. The world would have been much more boring if it wasn't for Steve Jobs. We will miss you.

“It would be an honor if you could be my advisor.” That was what I told Fred six years ago. It still is and will ever be. (For the record, upon hearing the flattering words, he smiled and said, “We will see after we finish this project.”) As anyone who has gone through a PhD should know, the relationship between a student and his/her advisor is, for the lack of a better word, complicated. The student, out of deep respect for the advisor, has a constant desire of proving him/herself to be smart; the advisor, out of deep love for the student, has an occupational habit of setting the bar even higher. I definitely felt the pressure during my PhD years with Fred, whose towering achievements only made it sometimes overwhelming. Fred had such a reputation as a tough advisor that when the Chief Scientist of my company heard that I was his student, he congratulated me for having “walked the fire”. As someone who has honorably “walked the fire”, I would like to share you the things I have lear...